


Comfort in the Panic

by sansiva1203



Series: Zutara Week 2018 [5]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Menstruation, Periods, Pregnancy, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Zutara, Zutara Week, Zutara Week 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 01:51:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15546987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sansiva1203/pseuds/sansiva1203
Summary: whenever katara’s on her period, and wants the sweet release of death to come and take her, zuko's right by her side. a really short and fluffy fic where zuko takes care of his wife."Zuko, on the other hand, is the one to remind the servants their sheets need changing whenever Katara’s flow is especially heavy. She can talk and complain freely about how she has to pretend that there is no war in Ba Sing Se to all of the members on various councils when indeed her body is fighting an internal battle with no small comfort spared."





	Comfort in the Panic

**Author's Note:**

> written for day 5 of zutara week 2018, based on prompts on tumblr. set post zuko’s crowning as fire lord, canon compliant with a:tla, divergent from korra. unbetaed, but i am looking for someone to read my future zutara, so please hit me up in the comments for either any of my grammar mistakes or to be my beta.
> 
> i actually found this prompt kinda difficult, so it's not the main focus of the fic, but it's definitely in there.
> 
> title from "heavy" by linkin park ft. kiiara

“Ughhhhhhhhh,” Katara moans. She actually feels like she’s dying, and can’t even muster up the energy to try waterbending a hot pack over her stomach. She knows it’s really early; she only wakes up like a firebender early in the morning when her cramps make it their life effort to stab her to death, so she knows Zuko’ll be up any moment now.

Before he does, though, Katara latches on to him like a backpack. She’s normally the little spoon, but she wants Zuko’s naturally hot body temp to heat her abdomen. In a split second, she feels him jolt awake, and he almost immediately knows what’s going on. Katara’s never big spoon unless she’s on her cycle. 

He reluctantly pulls away from his wife of two years and heads to the bathroom, not quite fully awake yet. Zuko makes sure to keep his morning routine quick, hearing Katara’s groans of pain and exasperation from their bed. Grabbing an extra comforter from their closet knowing Katara gets cold during her time of the month, he saunters over to bed, gently draping the thick blanket over Katara’s shivering body visible even through the sheets covering her now. Zuko mulls over the idea of leaving to sleep and starting the day, but quickly scraps that idea to cuddle for a bit longer. He’d deny it to anyone who asks, of course, but really, the big bad Fire Lord is a big softie at heart.

Crawling into bed behind her, Zuko gently wraps and arm around Katara’s middle, almost subconsciously pulling her closer to him. In the two years that they’ve been married, the only times Zuko and Katara haven’t fallen asleep intertwined were when one of them was away on official business. Zuko’s chest is pressed against Katara’s back now, and he starts make long, slow movements up and down her torso. She murmurs gently, only half-awake, and shimmies closer to him, making use of all the warmth she can get.

They stay like this, Katara fully in Zuko’s embrace, until the sun’s rays pour through the cracks in their curtains and Zuko knows he can’t stay any longer. He makes promises of ice cream and soju, though, and promptly delivers. He knows Katara’s cravings, and is well aware of her mood swings during this time. He doesn’t blame her at all, though. If he had blood streaming out from between his legs, Zuko knows that he would be the most annoying person in the world. Katara likes to say he is anyway.

Katara, of course, knows how lucky she is to have a partner as caring and mature as Zuko. She’s seen firsthand the way Sokka reacts to anything even remotely “feminine”, as depicted by the way he avoided talking to her for three days when she was caught rinsing blood out of a thick cloth. Zuko, on the other hand, is the one to remind the servants their sheets need changing whenever Katara’s flow is especially heavy. She can talk and complain freely about how she has to pretend that there is no war in Ba Sing Se to all of the members on various councils when indeed her body is fighting an internal battle with no small comfort spared.

Zuko lends an ear with no qualms, simply happy that his wife trusts him enough to not have to hide herself in front of him, as he assumes his mother once did. And if every so often he has the pleasure of offering a natural solution to relieve her of her pain, well, no harm done.

Of course, in just shy of a week, Katara’s back to her normal calm but passionate self, not that Zuko thinks she’s ever not calm, oh Agni no, but then he can go to sleep peacefully knowing that Katara will too, and has the pleasure of waking Katara up in more _ creative  _ ways.

Sometimes, when Katara’s on her cycle, she gets intrigued, in a totally comfortable and respectful way of course, by Zuko’s pain, even though his is the kind to lie deep within the soul. He’s been seeing a special kind of healer since the war ended, one that would help him heal his conflicted mind, and would talk him through his seemingly endless grief. But, Katara always seems more open emotionally during those six days, and she and Zuko always end up having deep heart to hearts every month or so. It’s during those deep conversations about the past and the future that Zuko is reminded of a time long, long ago when Katara was still considered an enemy through his eyes, yet they still talked about their unfortunate past when it came to their mothers.

Katara doesn’t bring up the time when Zuko betrayed her after she trusted him anymore; that was a low blow, and while she was more than okay using it keep Zuko away from her when he first joined the group, after he changed from “guy who sicced Combustion Man on us” to “Sifu Hotman”, there was no way she could bring herself to blame that on him. Not after everything he’d done for them.

Zuko still thinks about it every now and then. He thinks about what a wonderful woman he married, so kind that she’d console a man who tried to kill her. Sometimes, though, he has to keep in mind that the kind Katara still exists when she gets indisputably mad and throws him out of his own palace, even though he knows when he returns to bed that night, she’ll roll over and throw an arm around his shoulders.

But then, in the sudden blink of an eye, it’s been nearly seven weeks and Zuko still hasn’t massaged Katara’s lower back since the last time her cramps murdered her. He brings it up in a way he things is casual and nonchalant, but Katara sees right through him and confesses what she’s been thinking for the past two weeks. He beams in a way she’s only seen a handful of times before, and he makes her see a healer immediately, of course. Even though the healer says it’s a little too early to tell, all the signs are there, and of course, a woman’s intuition is no shabby thing to messed with, for Katara’s definitely sure it’s going to be a boy. Eight months later, when Lu Ten is named crown prince of the Fire Nation, Zuko falls asleep holding Katara a little tighter than usual, knowing that through all of her morning sickness and cravings, grouchy attitudes and frequent trips to the bathroom, he’d deal with issued a million times worse if it meant he could be with her.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading! every view, kudos, and comment truly makes my day and means so much for me, so if you think the fic is deserving, leave kudos and comments please!
> 
> come yell at me on tumblr: find me at veridian-nougat


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